How to change the screenshots save file location in MacOS X

I know how to capture my whole screen or just part of it. The screenshot is automatically saved to my desktop, and it is cluttering the entire desktop with .png screenshot files. How can I change where screenshots are saved on my MacOS X system instead of the default desktop location?

You can easily take a screenshot of your whole screen by pressing Shift-Command 3 keys. By default, the screenshot saved as a .png file on your desktop. You can press Shift-Command 4

to take a screenshot of a window. Then Space, and then clicking the window you want to capture. Again, the screenshot saved as a .png file on your desktop.

How to change screenshot save location

The steps are as follows:

Step 1: Open the terminal Application

Press Command Space to open Spotlight and type terminal

Step 2: Use defaults command to change screenshot file location

The syntax is:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture location /path/to/save/screenshots/ killall SystemUIServer

To save the screenshots in $HOME/screenshots/ folder, enter:

mkdir $HOME/screenshots/ defaults write com.apple.screencapture location $HOME/screenshots/ killall SystemUIServer

Sample outputs:

Fig.01: How to Change Where Screen Shots Save on MacOS X

Step 3: Verify it

Now take screenshot as described above and you should see the screenshots saved in $HOME/screenshots/ location:

$ ls $HOME/screenshots/
-rw-r--r--@ 1 veryv staff 82674 Jan 3 22:23 Screen Shot 2017-01-03 at 10.23.27 PM.png How do I revert back to original settings?

Type the following two commands to save back the screenshots in ~/Desktop/, enter:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture location ~/Desktop/ killall SystemUIServer

Tip: Change file name of screen shots on MacOS X

By default, screen shots taken in MacOS X save to files prefixed with “Screen Shot” in the file name. You can change file name prefix something else. The syntax is as follows:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture name "nixCraft" killall SystemUIServe ls ~/screenshots/

Sample outputs:

nixCraft 2017-01-03 at 10.32.37 PM.png

You can revert back to original prefix by typing the following two commands:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture name "Screen Shot" killall SystemUIServe

And there, you have it. No more desktops cluttered with images on MacOS.

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